How do sea slugs make their colour?

July 28, 2006
From: Janine C. Santiago

I'm a senior student in the Philippines.
I'm curious and i wanna know what specific gland or organ of the sea slug produce their color pigment. I know they adopt the color of their food. but I wana know what other ways they produce their color pigment..

hope i can here your answer soon..,

Cindy Santiaago
Quezon City,
Philippines

jcs_128@yahoo.com

Santiago, J.C., 2006 (Jul 28) How do sea slugs make their colour?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17217

Dear Janine,
Have a look at the Fact Sheet on 'colour in nudibranchs' and the links on that page to other aspects of the topic. Not all sea slugs adopt the colour of their food, and even those that do don't all do it the same way. Some are relatively transparent so you can see the colour of their food inside their bodies after they have eaten, while othrrs take the actual colour pigments out of their food and move the pigment to cells in their skin.

And then there are the many sea slugs which are very brightly coloured and look nothing like their food. In these cases the nudibranch's colour is from special pigment cells in the skin. This is the way most animals, including humans, produce their colour. [Because we use English not USA spelling, if you want to do a search on the Forum for information on colour you will need to spell it colour not color ].

Good luck with your studies
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Jul 28). Comment on How do sea slugs make their colour? by Janine C. Santiago. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17217

Factsheet

Colour in sea slugs

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